by Peter Scherer (Images: Steve Ingers)
Hopes were high of a good start to Mickleover’s first season in the NPL Midlands Division. But it wasn’t to be as they lost out to two first half goals at Coventry Sphinx.
Starting line-up: 1-Jack McDowell 2-Archie White 3-Jake Bennett 4-Will Atkinson 5-George Wilkinson 6 Ashton Offler 7-Steven Johnson-Fikula 9-Paddy Webb 10-Andy dales 11-Stuart Beavon Subs: Josh Carter, Liam Carter, Faser Corden, James Matthews, Toby Smith.
It was fairly intense opening 10 minutes, with neither team able to break down their opponents defences, nor test either keeper.
Mickleover finally broke through 18 minutes in, when White and Wood combined on the right to penetrate the home defence, but keeper Woods came to the rescue and brought any threat to an end.
Just two minutes later and the deadlock was brokenhowever, when a defensive error left the ball set up for striker Matty Shipman, who seized his opportunity to slot it past McDowell, 0-1.
But Wood was close to an equaliser after 28 minutes, when he let fly with a powerful strike from the edge of the box, but his shot was deflected just wide.
Wilkinson managed to block another Coventry attempt after 34 minutes, before the striker managed to shoot, but Sports were pushing hard to grab an equaliser as time began to run out in the first half.
With four minutes on the clock before the stoppage, Dales got through the defence after a long run, but was brought down in the box. Appeals for a penalty were dismissed, but three minutes later Sports defence failed to clear their lines, the ball fell to Redhead who scored at the near post, 0-2 as a disappointing first half came to end.
The second half started in a similar way to the first, with neither side taking the initiative, but 0-2 down changes were needed for Mickleover to get back into the game.
Corden came on for Beavon after 53 minutes and just after the hour mark Fikula and Atkins; made way for Liam Carter and Smith.
Webb was yellow carded after 64 minutes and Wood followed two minutes later, but any hopes of a fightback from Sports had still not begun, as they struggled to create any shooting opportunities.
But the best chance of the game fell to Webb in the 83rd minute, but his shot went fractionally wide. But with just six minutes on the clock, Coventry sub Harvey Smith was given a straight red card for violent conduct, having barely been on the pitch for two minutes.
Five minutes of added was played, but it made no difference to the 0-2 result, in a fairly scrappy game, where our hosts made the most of two defensive errors to take all three points.
